The Impossible Get
by Medie
Summary: Superwoman meet Lois Lane. Lois Lane...meet Superwoman. (prequel to A Practical Woman)


Title: The Impossible Get  
Author: Medie  
Rating: PG  
Characters: Superwoman, Lois Lane, Perry White, brief Jimmy Olsen appearance  
Keywords: Alternate Universe, Challenge Fic  
Spoilers: vague ones for the Superman Animated Movie: "The Last Son of Krypton"  
Disclaimer: I don't own the originals. DC does.  
Author's Note: Calla Kent was specifically inspired by elketanzer's A Distinct Shift challenge. I wrote Lois again. This is getting to be a disturbing trend. ;-p (psst..anybody spot the nod to the movie Someone Like You? grin)  
Summary: Superwoman meet Lois Lane. Lois Lane...meet Superwoman.  
  
"The Impossible Get"  
by M.  
--------  
  
"Superwoman..." Staring at the frozen image on the screen, Lois Lane smiled, the smile full of speculation and interest, and turned to face her colleagues, "She's strong, she flies...she's the Nietzschean ideal, all wrapped up in a red cape..."  
  
"Superwoman?" Standing by Perry, Calla Kent, the new kid, frowned as if the name irritated her. "But..."  
  
"I like it!" Perry cut her off, waving his hand enthusiastically at Lois. "It's the perfect name." He grinned, dropping into his chair and lacing his hands behind his head. "The kind of name that looks fantastic plastered across the front page..." He nodded toward the screen. "Lois, she's yours. I want you to find this woman and get her story."  
  
"Somehow, I don't think she's the kind of woman that keeps a press agent, Perry." The Daily Planet's lead reporter observed wryly, "Can't just call her up and ask for an interview."  
  
"I think if she wanted to give an interview," Calla interjected, pushing her glasses up on her nose, "she'd've done it by now. I don't think she's doing this for attention."  
  
"Doesn't matter, Kent." Perry dismissed. "She's getting attention whether she wants it or not, look at these faxes, the city's going nuts over this woman. Some people are hailing her as some sort of guardian angel, others are announcing her as some sort of threat..."  
  
"Some threat." Jimmy interjected. "She landed a plane full of people and caught a little kid out of the air...oh yeah, we're doomed."  
  
"Never said it was logical, kid." The editor countered, waving the faxes until Lois took them, leafing through them. "Just said it was happening. We don't get something on this woman soon, the city's gonna fly into a panic and then she's gonna have some real work cut out for her." He pointed at Lois. "Time to earn your keep, Lois. Find your 'Superwoman' and get me an exclusive."  
  
"Find your Superwoman..." Lois mimicked gruffly, stepping out of her shower and wrapping a towel around her hair. "Like it's so easy. I'll just go throw myself off a building and hope she's within shrieking distance..." She paused, briefly intrigued by the idea then dismissed it. No way, she wasn't that desperate for a story. No matter what Perry thought. "Well, Lois, you're the one who wanted to be Perry's go-to-reporter. The one who gets the impossible gets...guess you're officially it."  
  
She chuckled wryly to herself and slipped on a robe, tying the belt firmly about her waist as she left the bathroom, heading for her kitchen. "Maybe Jimmy can get me a map with all reported sightings indicated...there might be a pattern...what the hell?" A soft repeated knocking on her balcony door drew her attention to an outline visible through the gauzy drapes. An outline with a cape. "Oh you have got to be kidding me..." A hand flew to the towel on her head as she imagined the absolute disaster she had to be in. "Now?!"  
  
"Excuse me?" Through the door, she could hear an elegant voice, "Miss Lane? If you don't mind opening the door..."  
  
The realization that the story of the century was standing on her balcony, knocking, hit Lois suddenly and she yanked the towel off her head, throwing it on a chair. To hell with what she looked like. There was no way she was letting the newly-dubbed Superwoman fly away as if she'd never been there. Rushing to the door, she opened it to find the tall dark-haired woman, in all her form-fitting, black and red uniformed goodness, waiting expectantly.  
  
"I'd like to talk to you." Superwoman finished her comment with a charming smile. "Sorry about the entrance but..." She gestured to herself. "Taking the elevator is somewhat not an option."  
"I, uh, I can imagine." Lois stumbled over her words, immediately cursing her nerves. This was like any other story. Just a regular...oh screw it, there was no way this was an ordinary story and she knew it. "Please, come in." She stepped back to let the newcomer pass and watched as the caped woman walk carefully into the room, looking about with great curiosity. "Mind if I ask what brings you to my, er, balcony?"  
  
Superwoman looked over her shoulder with a little grin. "Well, I got the impression you wanted to talk to me. Called Star Labs and about half a dozen other places trying to find me I hear."  
  
"Mind if I ask how you heard that?"  
  
The beautiful woman laughed. "I make it a point to know what's going on and where. Especially if it connects back to me." She folded her arms across her midsection and inclined her head, surveying Lois and the reporter had the impression she was being inspected. "Besides, you can help me with a little problem."  
  
Tying her robe more firmly about her body, Lois lifted one eyebrow in question. "With what exactly?"  
  
"It's come to my attention that, I," The woman blushed and Lois all but gaped at her. Who blushed anymore? "Well, that I was scaring people."  
  
"Some." Lois allowed. "You have to admit, you're a bit much to take in...especially coupled with the fact we know next to nothing about you. Speaking of, who are you?"  
  
"That's a question I've been trying to answer myself for a very long time." Superwoman exhaled heavily, dropping her hands and then running one through her long black hair. "The best I've been able to piece together is that I'm the last survivor of a planet called Krypton."  
  
"Krypton?"  
  
Her host's skeptical repetition of the word drew an amused look. "You don't believe me?"  
  
"You're telling me that you're an alien from another planet...I'm sure you have to admit, that's a little hard to swallow." Lois explained with spread hands. "We don't get a lot of extraterrestrials showing up in Metropolis. Though, there are some people I would consider potential proof to the contrary."  
  
"Somehow, Miss Lane," Superwoman's grin was megawatt and more than a little dazzling. "I would have thought hearing I was an alien would be reassuring. Human beings aren't often in the habit of flying without aide of machinery or capable of catching crashing planes and landing them successfully. After those incidents, I would have thought the alien revelation would be...well, tame?"  
  
She did have a point, Lois had to give her that one. "True...Okay, so you're an alien. From a doomed race. What's your deal?"  
  
"Excuse me?" The alien woman frowned in confusion. "Deal?"  
  
"Yeah, what do you get out of catching planes, falling little girls, and rescuing stray puppies? What's in it for you?" The question seemed to genuinely offend Superwoman who took a step toward the door and she rushed to stop that, seized by the sudden desire not to see her leave. "I'm sorry but, even you have to admit, human beings aren't accustomed to altruism."  
  
"I suppose, it isn't altruism so much as gratitude." Superwoman responded, mollified. "My homeworld is gone, Miss Lane, my birth parents dead. I came here as a child without a family, without a home, and without an identity. Earth...Earth has given me all of these things and I've always tried to do as much good as I can in return. As much help as I can give, I give." She smiled again, a smile that made Lois smile in return, just the hint of unshed tears lurking in her beautiful eyes. "I suppose I tend to feel like there isn't enough I could do that would pay that debt. How do you thank people for giving you everything when you had nothing?"  
Swallowing around the sudden lump in her own throat, Lois forced herself to speak, "You said Earth gave you a home...a family...am I to assume that means you have a life outside of...that?" She gestured to the uniform and Superwoman looked down at it reflexively.  
  
"Outside of being this?" The Kryptonian smiled mysteriously. "I do. I have parents...people who took me in and raised me. I'd rather not talk about that and I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't print anything about it either." She looked so earnest and pleading that Lois felt like doing anything contrary to her wishes would be akin to kicking a puppy. "I don't want to put them in danger and neither one of us is so naive as to believe they wouldn't be if you did."  
  
"Don't worry," Lois assured, taking a step toward her and resting a reassuring hand on the other woman's slim arm, feeling the strength concealed in it. Superwoman's eyes met hers and the warmth located in their dark depths seemed to welcome her but Lois could see the guarded walls there as well. She wasn't quite trusted yet though, she was on her way there. "I won't print anything about them." She laughed, rueful. "Can't print what you don't know."  
  
"Thank you." Superwoman smiled, stepping past her to the balcony doors again. "Miss Lane?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You don't need to jump off a building to get my attention....believe me, you don't."  
  
With a rustle of cape, she was gone. Leaving Lois standing at the balcony doors, staring up into the sky.  
  
"Perry is not going to believe this one."  
  
Finis 


End file.
